Top Secret Document:

Operation Government

a webquest for Sixth Grade History

by Ryan T. Arthurton

Overview | Mission | Resources | Process | Evaluation | Debriefing


 
 


 
 
 
 
 

Overview:

You are about to enter a top secret document written by the Federation in the 2075. Once you have entered, you will be committed to completing the enclosed mission. During the course of the mission you are sworn to secrecy. The only people you may speak to on this topic are your fellow team members.
            Trust no one!

 
 
 


 
 
 
 
 

Your Mission

As you know, the Federation here on the Moon has been trying to organize a form of stable government for the last 25 years, with no success.  You, as a Federation member, need to use our time travel capabilities to travel back to the year 1787 so you my witness the meeting of the Second Continental Congress.  You will accompany the representative from what was the State of Delaware.  "You" have already written him a letter telling him that you are coming.

Your mission is to go to this convention and record everything you see.  When you come back, you need to be able to answer the following questions and have the appropriate artifacts:

  1. *What kind of people attended the conference?
  2. *What were the different National Government designs that were *presented?
  3. *Which structure did they choose? Why did they choose it?
  4. *Have a copy of the final document devised at this conference.
  5.  
Before you come before the Federation Council, you will want to make sure that all of your notes are organized in the form of a typed report containing all of the appropriate information.  Be ready to discuss your findings in front of your team on a moment's notice.

 
 
 


 
 
 
 
 

Resources

To help you fill in all of the details that you might have missed while in Philadelphia, use the following hyperlinks to explore the archives that we have downloaded from some old distress satelites that we located after the Second Big Bang.
  Mega Constitution

Creation of the U.S. Constitution

The Constitution Page

The ConstitutionThe Constitution Search

Citizen's Guide to US Constitution

The Constitution info Founding Fathers (also here)
Heritage by LeftJustified The National Archives has a wonderful site with lots of historical info

The National Archives has another site with Constitution Day (September 17) resources

Library of Congress - Continental Congress and Constitutional Convention Home PageGrolier's history of the Constitution,

Text and interpretation of the Constitution, and of the Amendments

The Institute for First Amendment Studies A proposed amendment dealing with taxation limits

The Constitution Notebook Program (U.S. - Info on program for Constitution Study)

The Constitution Society A site with a right-wing slant, but a lot of great resources, including Madison's

Notes on the Debates in the Constitutional Convention.

The National Constitution Center is trying to raise funds to build a Constitution Museum in Philadelphia.

The US Code (US House or Cornell University)Absolutely beautiful copies of the Constitution, by Theodore Ohman, are available from theOhman Originals site.

At Oak Hill Publishing'sConstitution Facts Bookstore, you can order facsimilie copies of the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, and other historical documents (note: no on-line ordering)
 

A nice resource for research are the Shaeffer Law Library finding aids from Albany Law School.
 

American Constitution: A Documentary Record
 

An Abridged History of the United States: An on line History by William M. Brinton 1996

Texts provided by your teacher from the classroom and your school library


 
 
 


 
 
 
 
 

The Process

1.    Travel back to 1787
2.    Locate places that talk about the convention. (use your web searching skills) (
3.    Take notes on your findings and site where you found your info.
4.    Construct your essay with your findings.
    (Use your "Good Essay Construction" guide to help you do this)

*Make sure that you bring back with you a copy of the document (s) that you need to explain the eliments in your essay.

**Make sure to email the Federation (teacher) when you have completed the assignment.


 
 


 
 
 
 
 

Evaluation

 
The Federation will be evaluating of the success of this project through the use of a rubric. Before to travel back in time, make sure you go and read about what they are looking for.


 
 
 
 
 

Debriefing:

Thank you Federation member!  You have saved all of the colonies on the moon.  We know understand how we need to organize ourselves to make our government run the way we want it to...through the people of the colony themselves...

The Three Branch system of government that you have described to us makes sense.  This way, the different people in the government will be able to watch the actions of the people in the others branches.  The "Constitution," as you called it, describes just how all of this stuff works.  Thank you for bringing back a copy of that document.

Thank you, again.  We will be in touch again in the future if we need your services.

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